CHESTNUT HILL — For most of 2013, it was Andre Williams dishing out the punishment against Boston College opponents.
On Friday night, the tables were turned in a big way as James Conner came to town with the Pittsburgh Panthers and, with the help of a powerful offensive line, ran roughshod over and through the Eagles defense for 213 yards and a touchdown. The Panthers knew what they had in Conner and knew BC had no answers. The Panthers gave it to Conner early and often, to the tune of 35 carries in a 30-20 win over the Eagles at Alumni Stadium.
Afterward, BC head coach Steve Addazio didn’t have to get too deep into football Xs and Os to assess what happened.
“It’s a real simple equation here,” Addazio began. “In my opinion we couldn’t stop the run on defense. We couldn’t establish the run on offense. We didn’t tackle well on defense. We didn’t complete throwing opportunities, and we had numerous ones, on offense.”
With no Andre Williams available to counter, Conner outgained the entire BC rushing collection of five carriers, 213-142. As a matter of fact, the most effective ball carrier for the Eagles was Tyler Murphy, their read option quarterback. He broke away for a 51-yard run in the first quarter, leading to a touchdown. But throw out that run and BC totaled just 91 yards on 33 carries.
Too much Conner and not enough answers from BC, either on defense or on offense.
“I knew he would be good,” Addazio said. “None of us had any delusions. He was going to run inside. He’s a strong runner. He’s a heck of a back. We had to tackle him. We had plenty of opportunities. Schematically, not all of the time, but a lot of the time, we were in position to make those plays and we didn’t make those tackles. Missed tackle, missed tackle, missed tackle. You’ve got to tackle that guy. You’ve got to wrap and drive him.
“We couldn’t stop the run. We couldn’t establish the run. We couldn’t complete the necessary passes which we had great opportunities to do. I thought Pitt played a great game. I thought their running back is a heck of a player. I thought their quarterback was pretty competitive. Their running back couldn’t be tackled. That’s on us. We’ve got to do a much better job. He’s a heck of a player but we’ve also got to do a much, much better job tackling. So we’ve got to get back to work and get on the fundamentals here. When we get back into full pads we have to start tackling again. We got away from that because it was a short week. We’ve got to go back and tackle, do all the things necessary to develop this football team.”
The compete level and tackling better pick up and pick up quickly as the Eagles host No. 14 USC next Saturday night at Alumni Stadium. Where the Panthers pounded the Eagles, the Trojans traditionally have speed to the outside and deep passing threats to exploit the BC defense that couldn’t tackle Friday night.
“I like the way we competed at the end,” Addazio said of Murphy’s touchdown run late that made it 30-20. BC missed a two-point conversion that would’ve made it a one-possession game with 43 seconds left. BC even recovered an onside kick after the final touchdown.
“We kept scratching and fighting. If we had converted the two-point conversion at the end and recover the onside kick it’s a one score game. That’s great and all that but the body of the game, in my opinion, we knew going into this game that we had to stop the run. We didn’t do it. It didn’t happen.”